Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has praised striker Marouane Chamakh after the Moroccan’s double inspired Palace to a 3-2 victory over Champions League-chasing Southampton in the FA Cup fourth round.

Graziano Pelle had given the home side the lead after just nine minutes. That was cancelled out two minutes later by Chamakh, before Scott Dann’s own-goal had given the Saints a 2-1 lead with only 16 minutes on the clock.

But on-loan striker Yaya Sanogo made it 2-2 after 21 minutes and then Chamakh got his second and Palace’s third shortly before half-time.

Chamakh, who was making his first start in over a month following a hamstring injury, was applauded by his manager, for his excellent performance at St Mary’s.

Pardew said: “I thought he was the best player on the pitch today and when you think about what players Southampton have got, it’s a real credit to him.

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“He’s been injured, the guys said to me, 'You’re going to get a lift in the team when you see him play' and I haven’t really seen a lot of Chamakh in my time.

“He did particularly well at the back end of last year but I don’t think even then he would put in as good as a performance as he did today.”

Despite conceding two poor goals in the first-half, Pardew was delighted with the way his defence reacted in the second-half.

He said: “We have a habit of conceding at the moment.

“If we can stop poor goals we’ll find ourselves in better positions in games.

“They got the first goal, but we got an immediate equaliser which helped us and increased our belief. It was a great first half.

“I felt that we worked on our attacking play this week and it was great to see that we had that sort of flamboyancy in our play today.

“Second-half was different, we locked it out a bit and had to defend very well.

“It terms of a Cup tie, it was terrific and both sides deserve credit for it."

After securing his fourth win from four games, Pardew suggested that some words of encouragment to his players has been the key to their current form.

He said: “I just gave them some confidence, I think.

“I’ve come from a club that’s regarded as a bigger club and worked with some absolutely terrific footballers.

“Therefore, when I’m giving them instructions they know I’ve worked with them types of players.

“You can do what Moussa Sissoko can do, you can do what Carlos Tevez can do, “That’s the type of confidence that you want to hear.

“You still need the application of the players and I have to say they have been tremendous and deserve all the credit.”